Visitors to Ireland are increasingly discovering not so much a land of the welcomes as "an atmosphere which is almost rude, brusque and indifferent", according to a senior tourism executive.
The secretary general of the Irish Hotel and Catering Institute, Mr Alexis FitzGerald, said visitors were now greeted with a litany of negative first impressions such as dirty railway stations, littered streets and uncaring, inattentive shop staff.
"Sadly, it is becoming Ireland of the unwelcomes," he said, adding that growth in the sector could not continue "unless we tackle these issues head on".
He was addressing a hospitality managers' conference yesterday attended by more than 130 industry chiefs.
Mr FitzGerald said that significant new investment in training was needed to arrest declining standards and "the death of the failte". He said the industry should invest at least 4 per cent of its labour costs in training, rather than just 2 per cent as recommended by the national training authority, CERT.
He noted, however, that fewer than 20 per cent of employers have a training plan in operation.
"Each person in the tourism industry should take a closer look at themselves, make an honest appraisal and take remedial action. The tendency to ignore the threats to our `failte' or to be defensive about it is ill-fated, as so many of our futures depend on a successful, thriving industry. We should be keenly aware of complacency born of our recent economic success."
He said the Government had its role to play in providing training incentives, marketing support, more effective anti-litter programmes and an "insistence on world-class hygiene practices, especially at national transport centres." Railway stations "are far below acceptable standards and bus pollution is appalling."
Despite falling standards, he said, the number of people employed in tourism was expected to rise from 120,000 to 185,000 by 2006, while annual earnings were due to rise from £2.3 billion to £3.5 billion.
